Not trying to hijack the thread, but this made me scratch my head. Of course, the article is on CNN about someone from CNN, and there's absolutely no input from O'Keefe, but this just seems so ... strange.

I would think there might be more efficient and less 'troublesome' ways to 'punk' CNN.

It was interesting that Barney Frank had the most sensible reaction: only agree to do the show if it's broadcast live. If it's taped and edited, there is no way a politico can avoid being portrayed as an idiot (or worse) if that's what the editor wants to do.

That O'Keefe business is weird. I was mostly with him up to this point. But he's jumped the shark for me. And I've been following this Tyler Clementi story all morning, so the idea of secretly videoing someone in this manner has an especially ugly sheen to it right now.

Colbert was never as funny as Stewart. And his schtick has gotten old. The testifying before Congress in character bothers me- not quite sure why exactly. It's not as though Congress is so deserving of our respect. Somehow it's crossed a line. Maybe it's that doing that shows a disrespect for the American people?

Jokes are so much funnier when you're not the butt of them....Letterman, Colbert, Stewart, Maher can make amusing wisecracks. That's their skill set, and they're good at it. Being witty is not the same as being wise, but try telling that to college kids. At any rate, the jerk Democrats such as Grayson, Massa, Frank seem to never inspire their best efforts. The difference between Frank and Jeffries, Edwards and Palin is not their intellect and values but the ridicule they attract from the mocketariat.

Members of Congress have been fooled time after time after time by Stephen Colbert, and after last week’s mockery, they have a message for the satirist who makes a living lampooning them: Colbert, you’re dead to us.

Didn't I predict this when his possibly being stopped from testifying came up?

The best advice is to do live interviews only. The first rule in life is "Thou shalt give thy enemy no ammunition". That is why lawyers forbid clients doing interviews about a "pending case". The way the McCain campaign gurus sent Palin out to do Curic and Schieffer's hours of taped interviews is revealed here as an early sabotage job on Palin.

Later while on the air, Colbert called the lawmaker — who declined to be identified — a “pussy” for refusing the interview, the aide said. “You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. You can go on and look like a fool, or not do it and he’ll say terrible things about you.”

Damned if you don't? WTF? So the seriously unfunny Stephen Colbert will say terrible things about a sitting member of Congress. Oh, the horror. I can't stand Colbert or Stewart, but that aide is truly a big pussy.

Jokes are so much funnier when you're not the butt of them....Letterman, Colbert, Stewart, Maher can make amusing wisecracks. That's their skill set, and they're good at it. Being witty is not the same as being wise, but try telling that to college kids.

Is it just my getting old, or is the current crop of comedians and most of the writers for sitcoms and "funny" commercials just not that funny. I don't consider wisecracks to be the same thing as witty. Wit has to contain a kernel of truth, which is why so many of Oscar Wilde's and Winston Churchill's line are memorable. Wise cracks can be memorable, too, but they have to be pretty good and most aren't.

I think it must be my age, because about the only things that make me laugh out loud now are some of the clips on "The World's Dumbest . . ." and Jay Leno's Headlines bit. For most jokes, I can now spot the punchline before it gets there. True comedy requires an element of surprise.

Colbert should have known better than to think his "humor" would play in that setting. He looked very uncomfortable.

Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters, “I watch it all the time, and I think, ‘Why would anybody go on there?’”

Why "even" Nancy Pelosi? Does the writer mean that even someone who makes a fool of herself as regularly as Speaker Pelosi should see the downside?

I used to find the "Better Know a District" segments funny, and the one with the congressman who couldn't name more than three of the ten commandments was a classic, but in the editing process they can make anyone look like an idiot.

I thought Colbert made an absolute ass of himself at the congressional hearing. He wasn't funny and he seemed to be mocking the issue he was there to bring attention to. He shouldn't have been doing schtick.

Stewart I can't stand anymore, with his incessant mugging at the camera and giggling hysterically at his own jokes. It was weird seeing him with Letterman the other night when Letterman was telling an unfunny story about sticking Oprah with a dinner check (the same well-worn gag used in "Dumb and Dumber"), and Stewart was giggling and writhing around in his seat like he'd never heard anything so funny. He was shamelessly sucking up, the same way he sucks up when he has Seinfeld on.